Pulling up civic agencies and police for unauthorised construction in the city, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the three municipal corporations to file a status report on the number of unauthorised buildings that have been booked and the number of complaints sent to police by the three civic bodies.

“You have powers under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, why don’t you use them?” the court of Justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul asked the MCDs. The civic bodies told the court that there was a delay in tackling cases of unauthorised construction as police were not sealing the premises or giving protection to corporation officials to carry demolition drives.

The court noted that Sections 461 and 466A of the DMC Act gave policing powers, including those of sealing and demolition, to the MCD. The counsel for police also argued that police had registered an FIR for every complaint of unauthorised construction they received from the civic bodies.

“Maybe the Centre can dissolve them and take over their functions. Then there will be no passing of the buck,” the court said. A bunch of cases regarding unauthorised construction were taken up by the court on Wednesday. The court has been monitoring the issue and had last month summoned the three municipal commissioners to appear before it and work out a solution to the issue.

“We direct municipal corporations and other agencies to inspect areas under their jurisdictions and file complaints with police wherever unauthorised constructions are found,” the court ordered. It asked the MCDs to provide a list of complaints made by them, and police, to for a report on the number of FIRs registered on the complaints by November 19, the next date of hearing.